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Nice. Can't imagine him getting it with all the time he missed but great he is a finalist. Shows the recognition is finally there for having been out all those games and still being in the top 3. Also a good read there with the SI article too.

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I don't know guys - sports writers have been just gaga over Datsyuk in the past month. There are so many articles about how amazing he is and one of the best of all time and this and that. I think that is a pretty fair indication to see how the voters are thinking.

Likewise with Lidstrom this year (a litte bit of a bounceback is all writers needed to showcase him to the public) i.e. his perfect human article on espn. I think its safe to say he's wrapped up the norris.

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He claims to have found a silver lining in the broken hand he suffered in December: "When the cast comes off, I ask my doctor, 'Have I recovered so I can play the violin?' The doctor says, 'But of course you can play the violin.' I say, 'Wow, this is great. Before this injury, I could never play violin at all. I must break the other hand so I can play guitar.'

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I hope Datsyuk wins, of course. But I think the voters are going to pick Kesler this year because of his 40 goal season and since Datsyuk's won it the last 3 years.

The trophy is really for 'best defensive forward who is already good offensively or happens to have a breakout year offensively'.

Funny how Kesler's probably going to win it for an improvement in his offense rather than defense.

He scored 2 fewer points; sure he scored more goals but that is because instead of being the playmaker he was the shooter. Still a 70-75 point guy, same as last year.

Nice. Can't imagine him getting it with all the time he missed but great he is a finalist. Shows the recognition is finally there for having been out all those games and still being in the top 3. Also a good read there with the SI article too.

It's official. Henrik Zetterberg is the most underrated player in the NHL. And Dave Bolland is right behind him. The nominees should have been Kesler, Zetterberg, and Hanzal; Toews is good on D, but Bolland is the lock down guy in Chicago. I was saying it since he went out; if he had not been injured Chicago is a top four seed, possibly division champs, and if he had come back in Game 1 of the playoffs Chicago wins in 5 games.

Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kesler, Bolland, and Hanzal (who I very much want on the Wings) are IMHO the top five defensive forwards in the league.

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Couldn't argue this even if I wanted to. Your font and Hudler obsession still makes me want to attempt it though....

The question is...does Hank get a second team selection at LW or C, or does he get screwed by playing both positions at an elite level and not having the numbers the Sedins and Stamkos have, or the name recognition of Ovechkin?

It will be interesting. IMHO the Sedins bear the only legit challenge to him at those two positions; they're pretty decent defensively and very good offensively. Big difference is that Z had basically no offensive help; his 21-point lead over Datsyuk tied Buffalo's Thomas Vanek for the largest difference between the top two scorers on a team. I am torn between Z and Kesler for the Selke, because Kesler was absolutely fantastic defensively this season, but I would definitely put Z in my top five for the Hart.

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Not that it counts for anything, but Pavel had a much better first round than Kesler in pretty much any imaginable category (although for defense "any imaginable category" is perilously close to "sweet f***all").

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Isn't it funny that Kesler is an anagram for Selker? ...anyways, he can take it this year. It'll be Pav's next year again. Maybe Pav can still take home some trophies this summer. If you know what I mean.

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